Musical and Social Revolution:
Chuck D. shows the world how to sell soul to a soulless people who’ve sold their souls - Rachelle Robinett (Staff Writer)

“I’m a musician and I have a universal language which is called music so being a cultural ambassador and being able to give people stories and get them from different places around the world to me is a privilege.”

"It’s a reality. You’re out in Seattle so sometimes rain is discouraging but it is what it is, ya know?”–Chuck D., Public Enemy

From the man who founded Public Enemy, the most groundbreaking and controversial hip-hop group with a two-decade lifespan, continues to come a seemingly unending determination to make a difference. Chuck D. has been called to the pursuit of equality, freedom, political awareness, and the importance of consciousness of the entirety of life on this planet.

Born to a set of political-activist parents in Roosevelt, Long Island, on August 1, 1960, Chuck D. would become one of the most influential and innovative front-men in music.  He was an intelligent student at Long Island's Adelphi University, studying design and making promo posters for hip-hop events and co-hosting a show on the campus radio station.  That was, of course, before he redefined the very genre he would soon lead. That was before he pushed rappers to revolution and shouted self-awareness from an adamant pedestal swarmed by supporters and dissenters.  He stood above the tumultuous turmoil of a generation, pointed his finger and created a movement.

 While still in college, Chuck D.–then Chuckie D.–rapped on a friend’s demo, “Public Enemy No. 1.” The friend was Hank Shocklee.  The demo excited executives at Def Jam Records and Public Enemy was assembled; the year was 1982.  With Shocklee as producer and another fellow student, Bill Stephney as publicist, Chuck D., DJ Terminator X (Norman Rogers) and Flavor Flav (William Drayton) formed the face of a musical fire that would burn its way to the top, leaving a trail of Public Enemy fans in its wake.

 

Public Enemy’s debut, “Yo! Bum Rush the Show,” released in 1987, saw them favor but not fandom.  Mainstream music passed right by, but Public Enemy persisted and a year later, “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” was true to its name.

 

Avant-garde, dense, and chaotic soundscapes–composed of sampled noise and siren sounds create solid walls of organized chaos.  Above and through comes Chuck D.’s rhetoric for revolution/rebellion. Critics rallied in recognition of “A Nation of Millions” and Public Enemy stormed onto the mainstream scene with avidity. The record received rave reviews and solidified Public Enemy’s position as socially-aware rappers with the resolve not only to enlighten, but advance a peoples’ position. Chuck D. called rap “the black CNN” that recounted inner-city life in a voice audible to a nation and the world as well.

 Two more records released amid clouds of controversy stayed Public Enemy’s course until 1995 when Chuck decided to put the band on pause.  He released a solo album, “The Autobiography of Mistachuck,” in ’96 and a book version of the record the following year.  He spoke on college lecture circuits and frequently provided commentary for television news programs.  Even on hiatus from Public Enemy, Chuck continued to make his voice heard, raising awareness of social issues such as racial inequalities, the power of political activism and the requisite for worldwide responsiveness to repression and disadvantage.

 In 1999, Chuck left Def Jam Records over the label’s refusal to allow the distribution of Public Enemy music via free Internet downloads. He signed with Atomic Pop, advocating MP3 technology and was the first major artist to release a full-length album over the Internet, titled “There’s a Poison Goin’ On.”

 These days find the revolutionary alternating between working on two new Public Enemy records while also maintaining his influential presence internationally. It’s been back to the drawing board and into the studio for Chuck post-election, since campaigning across the nation encouraging young voters-for which he received the Rock the Vote Patrick Lippert Award for recording artists dedicated to social and political change.

 Regarding the outcome of the election, Chuck said, “I really couldn’t wait to leave the country, post-election, after dedicating more than half a year trying to get George Bush out. Now I’m really looking to the rest of the world and trying to cope with starting a second term with George Bush. So I’m sort of back to reality so to speak.”

Reality includes working long hours in one of his four studios, or traveling. Aside from for business or pleasure, Chuck travels in order to maintain open eyes, an open mind and a social awareness that extends beyond the boundaries of the United States.

“Most Americans are spoiled, thinking they live in the best place on earth and they’re isolated from the rest of the planet and I just think that’s short-sighted.” Chuck considers this thinking outside of the lower-48-state box essential to the health of a nation and its capacity for change. The lack of exposure to the condition of the world as a whole leads to what Chuck calls “a quasi-confirmed illusion of what other ethnic backgrounds are like.”

Modern rappers’ manufactured images of black society and anti-intellectualism are creating propaganda that children – black and white alike – hurriedly absorb. Much more of this, says Chuck, and the source of the originally problematic stereotype is completely lost, replaced by a generation aspiring to get rich or die trying.“A lot of the artists in the U.S. are kind of reflective of the administration. They resemble the get rich or die trying president. George Bush is get rich or die trying so what’s the difference between George Bush and 50 Cent?”

 Undiscouraged and relentless, despite both wins and losses, Chuck persists with plans for an improved future. Cures for the crises include either an alien invasion or another couple of Public Enemy records.“If black and white people think they’re really different, let this world be invaded by aliens. Aliens that eat people - that’ll really trip people out, and it makes anything else you talk about insignificant.”

 While waiting for the invasion, Chuck decided to pass the time working on two new Public Enemy records. There are plans to release the two simultaneously – one a domestic conversation and the other an international discussion – both as powerful and important as you’d expect. Chuck’s humble ambition this time around is to save your soul.

“’How to Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who’ve Sold Their Souls’ is a record that asks, ‘How do we regain our souls . . . and soul?’ Souls disappear like the Antarctic ice the more these processes are in charge of music and culture and all that stuff rather than the funk of a sweating audience of musicians.”

The soul he sees as being worth saving belongs to you. It belongs to a generation characterized by sexy news and mass-marketed consumerism–a generation saturated with push, and one visionary’s shout away from revolution–don’t believe the hype.“I think there’s a whole generation of young people who want to rebel against the whole dumbing-down of society. They’re subject to so much whatever in order for them to become a consumer, that they’re going to rebel against it and say, ‘I don’t want to buy any of this shit, I can do it better myself.’”Twenty years later Public Enemy is staging a comeback, drawing up battle plans, and front-man Chuck D. is suiting up.

[Editor’s Note: Chuck D. is going to be an honorary guest speaker at the “Call to Conscience: A Celebration of Women and Labor” event, hosted by MUSICA and the ILWU, February 22^nd at Pantages Theater in Tacoma, Washington.  For more info, go to our website (www.musicaentertainment.com).]

Contact: racheller@musicaentertainment.com